Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Just off the mouth of the Helford River a big cloudscape hides the sun but allows the magnificent display of sparkling light to play accross the water. The cooling air brings the perfume of honeysuckle and hot earth from the land out to the sea.I am reading "Frenchman's Creek " by Daphne du Maurier, hugely romantic and set in this area, thoroughly enjoying the descriptions of places that I know so well.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Out in the Falmouth Bay as the sun was setting, St Anthony Lighthouse silhouetted against a yellow shot sky, Pendennis Castle rendered down to a smudge of russet guarding the entrance to Falmouth harbour. The sea becoming inky silk by the minute.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Carrying on with the leaves and light thing. In all honesty in this hot summer weather I seem to be drawn to deep pools of leafy shade.

Right now I am in need of some comfort painting. These woodland paintings are like mashed potato or buttered toast, comfort food, but not as fattening. I retreat to the woods when I am feeling vulnerable and fed up.

Why am I fed up? Because I paid hard earned cash, painted my earnest little soul out, made two honest paintings, got them beautifully framed, met the courier van and let my babies go up to the big city to be held up and judged as not good enough to get into the Exhibition for the Threadneedle Prize. I have on a few occasions tried to get into one of these juried exhibitions, every time I think I have got it right, I have conveniently forgotten the crushing sense of abject failure that descends for a day or so. Bit like childbirth, it hurts but one often forgets that bit and goes back for more. Anyway I have now decided that I wont be doing it again. Obviously my style doesn't fit into some slot or other and I really do not like the slap in the face. I have made my living from my art for at least 30 years now so maybe I should take heart from that fact and carry on working away. Doing my own thing.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Just hanging about with some leaves, trying to get the green light thing going, splashing about in the cool green woods.

I love greens, once an idiot tried to tell me that veridian was a hideous and almost illegal colour! Ha! What did he know! Since that unfortunate conversation I use it at every opportunity. I don't think that it is possible to have a hideous colour, especially not a green one! Splash them about, wallow in those cool greens.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Yet another blog!! It is a new one, it is a replacement for the original Muddy Red Shoes. It is dedicated to everything else that I do that is creative but isn't drawing or painting, have a look if you please. It will be just things that I make, no gossip, no birthdays or embarrassing ramblings about my children or midnight ranting. It is called Hand and I, which is a name that I used to work under and may use again. Anyway, enough said, go have a look...

Walk through the woods at Midsummer. Stop and look up. There you will see a dazzling light display, sunlight shimmering through young leaves. It is like the stained glass of this magnificent natural cathedral. A homage to beauty.

I really wanted to see if I could do this, to capture that sense of frail green, almost transparent leaf lenses and the dizzying dots of light coming through them. I tried and will try some more, it was a very intense but restful exercise, all those greens cooling the mind!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

I am struck by how empty the landscape seems, not many roads, no houses, just occasionally a horse. In just over a hundred years so much is so very different. Although I knew that was the case it is only looking at these small sketches that it sinks in. I really think that sketchbooks have that power, to take you by the hand and transport you right there, sitting next to the artist as he or she makes their marks and records that filament of time.

This is the message, keep on keeping those sketchbooks, one day a hundred and thirty years later your great great granddaughter will be sitting quietly beside you, seeing what you see and feeling a connection across the years.

Follow the footpath that takes you to Frenchman's Creek. Walk through the dark woods, out into the bright meadows of Kestle Farm, past the jostling crowds of summer flowers. The tall daises vie for your attention with golden buttercups. Little shouts of bluest cornflower, like specks of fallen sky and hundreds of different grasses knocking summers pollen dust onto bare feet. This is a field like I remember fields were years ago, a rich tapestry of texture, detail fading into brushstrokes, swathes of delicate summer colours.

The Helford river is nibbled with tiny hidden coves, creeks and beaches. Tracks and paths lead to some of them, others are only approachable by boat. There is a sense of discovering treasure when a path through the woods opens out onto the river or to the open sea. This time of year the trees offer cool and shady tunnels of velvet green through to the sun beaten beaches where the drying seaweed offers up the scents of childhood summers.

see all here

A Cry From The Heart

Please try not to steal my work. Printing images without permission is theft. Plus they will not look very good. However, if you want to use them on the Net, I am quite a generous person, just ask nicely and give me a credit. What goes around, comes around.Thank you...Sarah.